vimsynth/modules

69 modules

Every card below is a photograph of the real thing — the module added to an empty rack and drawn by vimsynth itself, knobs where they land by default. Pick one for its sockets, its knobs and what it is for.

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sources

They make a signal out of nothing — oscillators, noise, sample players, and the two doors the outside world comes in through.

The VCO card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 14 terminal cellsVCOThe main oscillator.The SUB card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsSUBA sub-oscillator an octave (or two) below whatever audio you feed it.The WAVE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsWAVEA wavetable oscillator.The PLUCK card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsPLUCKA plucked string (Karplus-Strong).The PUNCH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 18 terminal cellsPUNCHA struck percussion voice — a kick, a snare, a hat, all the same card.The CMPX card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 21 terminal cellsCMPXA complex oscillator: two operators in one card, wired the west-coast way.The POLY card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsPOLYA unison stack: several detuned copies of ONE voice, born stereo.The LFO card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsLFOA slow oscillator, for modulating things.The NOISE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsNOISEWhite or pink noise.The SMPL card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 22 terminal cellsSMPLPlays a recording from a sample bank slot.The GRAIN card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 28 terminal cellsGRAINGranular synthesis: takes a recording apart into short windowed grains and scatters them into a cloud.The SLICE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsSLICEPlays one piece of a recording that has been cut into several, chosen by pos — a 0..1 CV, so a sequencer's own pitch/CV output can pick which slice fires, the way it would pick a note.The LANE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsLANEOne lane of the ARRANGEMENT: many clips of recorded audio, laid out along a timeline and played in order.The MIN card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 15 terminal cellsMINMIDI notes from a port or a DAW, as CV: a monophonic voice with last-note priority, emitting v/oct, gate and vel.The BUS card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 6 terminal cellsBUSTHE MASTER BUS, as something a cable can reach.The CATCH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 30 terminal cellsCATCHThe rack's SHORT-TERM MEMORY: a micro-looper with no start command.

processors

They take a signal and change it — filters, gates, distortion, and everything that works in time.

The WEAVE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 22 terminal cellsWEAVEGRANULAR CUT TO THE SOUND'S OWN PERIODS, not to a clock.The VCF card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 16 terminal cellsVCFResonant filter, state-variable.The LPG card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsLPGA vactrol-style low-pass gate.The VCA card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsVCAAn amplifier.The QVCA card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 18 terminal cellsQVCAFour VCAs on one card, each with its own output and its own CV — a drum bus's four voices, each under its own envelope, without four separate cards.The RING card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 6 terminal cellsRINGFour-quadrant multiplier: x × y, signed.The FOLD card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsFOLDA wavefolder.The DRIVE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsDRIVEGain, and overdrive.The VOC card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsVOCA channel vocoder.The PRESS card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsPRESSA compressor/limiter.The CRUSH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsCRUSHA bitcrusher: throws away amplitude resolution (bits) and time resolution (rate, a sample-and-hold at less than full speed) independently of each other.The BEND card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsBENDA circuit bender: it CORRUPTS the incoming sound the way bridging two traces on a cheap digital toy does.The RESON card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 21 terminal cellsRESONA resonant BODY — modal synthesis.The DELAY card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 21 terminal cellsDELAYAn echo.The TAPE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 20 terminal cellsTAPEAn echo that wanders and darkens: wow bends the pitch slowly, flutter jitters it faster, damp takes a little top end off each repeat, and the feedback path saturates readily.The CHORUS card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 14 terminal cellsCHORUSOne voice heard as several: a short swept delay, detuned by the sweep.The REVERB card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 26 terminal cellsREVERBA room around the sound.The WARP card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 29 terminal cellsWARPA reverb whose TANK IS SCALED BY ONE RATE, in octaves, with a 1 v/oct input under it.The PAN card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsPANPlaces a mono sound in the stereo field, at constant power so it does not dip in the middle.The EQ card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 24 terminal cellsEQA four-band equaliser for a stereo BUS — a low shelf, two sweepable bells with their own width, and a high shelf.The WIDTH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsWIDTHStereo width, in mid/side.The LIMIT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsLIMITA brickwall LIMITER — the end of a mastering chain.The MBAND card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 25 terminal cellsMBANDThree-band dynamics: the glue a single-band compressor cannot do.The COPY card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 28 terminal cellsCOPYA delay whose axis is GENERATION rather than time.

modulators

They make control voltage that moves something else — envelopes, sample-and-hold, slew, randomness.

The ADSR card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsADSRThe envelope.The FOLLOW card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsFOLLOWAn envelope follower: turns AUDIO into CV by tracking how loud it is.The TRACK card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 19 terminal cellsTRACKPITCH TO VOLTAGE — the other half of FOLLOW.The S&H card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsS&HSample and hold.The SLEW card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsSLEWSmooths a signal: a rise time and a fall time, separately.The TIDE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 21 terminal cellsTIDEA function generator that is an envelope, an LFO and an oscillator at once, with the SHAPE on a knob.The RAND card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsRANDA generative random source you can steer between fresh-every-time and a repeating groove.

utilities

The glue — attenuators, mixers, logic, quantisers, routing, recording, and the way out to MIDI.

The ATT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsATTAttenuverter: out = in × amount + offset.The MIXER card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 14 terminal cellsMIXERSums four signals, with a level on each.The SMIX card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 24 terminal cellsSMIXStereo mixer: up to FOUR stereo channels, each with level and pan under full CV.The COMP card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsCOMPComparator: turns a CV into a gate when it crosses a threshold.The LOGIC card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsLOGICAND / OR / XOR / NAND on two gates.The QUANT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsQUANTSnaps any CV to a scale.The SWITCH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsSWITCHA gate turns a signal on and off — or picks between two.The REC card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 15 terminal cellsRECRecords whatever is patched into it, for as long as its gate is high, into a sample bank slot.The MOUT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 15 terminal cellsMOUTGate + pitch + velocity, back out as MIDI notes — the rack playing a hardware synth or a DAW.The CCOUT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 20 terminal cellsCCOUTFour CV lanes out as MIDI control change — the rack *modulating* a hardware synth, where MOUT plays it.

sequencing

Rhythm and time — the clock, and everything that divides, multiplies, gates or steps off it.

The CLOCK card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 13 terminal cellsCLOCKThe tempo.The DIV card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsDIVPasses every n-th pulse.The MULT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsMULTMultiplies a clock: n pulses out for every one in.The SWING card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsSWINGSwings a clock: delays every second pulse — the 'and' of each beat pair — by a fraction of the beat.The RATCH card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsRATCHBursts each pulse into several — the stutter, the roll, the trap hi-hat.The EUCLID card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsEUCLIDEuclidean rhythm: spreads pulses hits as evenly as possible over steps.The TOPO card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 21 terminal cellsTOPOA drum machine you STEER, not program.The META card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 25 terminal cellsMETAThe master rack's ruling sequencer — MASTER-ONLY, with up to EIGHT tracks that reach out into the tabs (tracks says how many it carries; five to begin with).The SEQ card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 17 terminal cellsSEQA step sequencer: a pitch and a gate per step, up to 32.The KEYS card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsKEYSThe computer keyboard as a playable instrument: pitch CV and a gate.

output

The end of the chain — the scope you look at, and the speakers you hear.

The SCOPE card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 11 terminal cellsSCOPEShows a waveform.The OUT card as vimsynth draws it, 32 by 12 terminal cellsOUTThe speakers.